Issue 8 (June 2001)

Issue 8, June 2001

Editor’s letter

“Flying into Los Angeles… and flying out again and flying back and… What am I on about? This issue. And the next. And… Start again with an explanation. Every May, Los Angeles holds a videogame trade show by the name of E3. Publishers and developers debut their latest and greatest games at the event, and journos spend three days wandering around in a haze of leaflets, demos, models and grown men dressed up as furry ocelots, scoring the latest treats for their respective magazines.

You might wonder why I am writing about this on the morning of 24 April. Because this year we’re pulling out all the stops to bust all those exclusives before E3. It’s meant virtually every OPS2 staffer, freelancer and tea person has been out of the office, jetting off to LA, Paris, Phoenix and, erm, Sheffield, to get the news for you first. A brief look at this issue’s Spy will show you the fruits of these jet lagged labours. Timesplitters 2, Star Wars: Racer Revenge, Deus Ex, FIFA 2002, Stuntman, Airblade, Splashdown, James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire, Smuggler’s Run 2… The list goes on and on, while elsewhere you’ll find exclusive reports on Conflict Zone, Dropship, Escape from Monkey Island and Neversoft’s astonishing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3. Take a trip over to page 90 to see both a truly revolutionary game and indeed the reason why my eyes are currently bleeding with jet lag. Which hurts. A lot.

So why the videogaming equivalent of peeling back the wrapping paper on Christmas Eve? Because we can is one answer, but more importantly it’s to once again prove a point. New games for the PS2 are flying out of the woodwork and with the imminent release of this issue’s cover star, Volition’s ground-breaking Red Faction, plus next issue’s exclusive UK review of Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, the PS2’s range of games just gets better and better. Over the next few issues, we’ll bring you the exclusive lowdown on all these titles and more and, as our eye-caressing features show, we’ll present them with the visual style and flair they deserve.

All of which poses a bit of a problem – what the hell do we write about next issue? Well, E3 will inevitably throw up more than a few surprises – indeed, we’re sadly sworn to secrecy on a few announcements that will blow PS2 owners out of the water. Let’s just say we’re planning to boost our online coverage in the next few months by a considerable amount.

Enough. Tuck into this issue and let us know what you think by writing to the address at the top of page eight. The future’s looking brighter than ever – if only I could get my eyes to stop hurting so could see what I’m actually scribbling about…”

Mike Goldsmith, Senior Editor

Features

OPS2 Interview: Rory Armes

University Challenge – The OPS2 party bus drives around various UK universities, spreading the joys of PS2 and beer.

The Real Unreal – Front magazine challenged OPS2 to a game of quasar. Between the skillset for shooting virtual guns not translating to shooting (sort of) real ones, and a propensity for friendly fire, OPS2 got whooped.

Satanic Versus – Last month, Devil May Cry had to share the spotlight with Resident Evil, but this month it gets a feature all to itself.

Dye Hard – Certified utterly nails military man Captain Dale Dye offers his consultant services for Medal of Honor: Frontline.

Big in Japan – A feature on the 2001 Tokyo Game Show, with highlights including Final Fantasy X, Silent Hill 2, Gitaroo Man and Mr Moskeeto.

Out of the Blue – Dropship: United Peace Force

Cool as Truck – Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3

Monthly Articles

The Beautiful Game – Stealing bits from other games and mashing them together to make the ultimate super-game. This month, space combat.

30 Days in Tokyo – This month, Sony’s Japanese mascot Toro, best known in the west for his appearances in Playstation All Stars Battle Royale and Street Fighter X Tekken, and the world’s most disturbing banana.

The Grid – A head-to-head comparison of multiple upcoming games of a similar genre or theme. This month, films based on games. Had it been made, the Duke Nukem film rumoured here would have been either brilliant or terrible.

5X5 – Asking 5 questions to 5 industry figures. This month’s theme: Sega dropping out of the console wars and focusing on games only.

Designer Genes – Readers write in with their game ideas and pitches. This month, Breed. Homicide detective Breed must investigate a gruesome murder and interact with some unsavoury, witnesses and suspects, before discovering that he, or rather his evil split personality, is the killer. The horror-tinged character designs and dark storyline are reminiscent of The Suffering, despite predating that game.

Game Over – MDK 2: Armageddon. The gang throw an ass-kicking pose after a job well done.

Previews

Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec – “With even more goodness still to be crammed in, A-Spec is shaping up to elevate the racing genre to a whole new plane.”

Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex – “More of a gentle spit and polish than a reworking, but the variety and playability of the original is ever present. And that’s what counts.”

Extreme G-3 – “Mad raging super-fast turbo sci-fi bike action with imaginative visuals and a nice gameplay system. A worthy adversary for WipEout?”

Le Mans 24 Hours – “A playable but uneven racer. Careers from visually impressive to crude, while the gameplay is currently the wrong side of predictable.”

Escape from Monkey Island – “Brilliant plot, great puzzles and a spot-on conversion from the PC classic. Escape from Monkey Island can’t fail to be anything but superb.”

Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance – “A touch too shallow at the moment but should play a blinder once the AI has been fine tuned.”

Conflict Zone – “We’ve seen it, it’s frighteningly smart but beautifully accessible. But might it be just a little too cerebral for the mainstream?”

Bloody Roar 3 – “At the end of the day, it’s just a beat-‘em-up. But it’s brimming with graphical flourish and the animal element will add novelty value.”

Reviews

Red Faction – “As a cross between Quake and MGS, Red Faction almost does the business. Explosive and epic in scale, only a little lazy design manages to mar the magnificence.” 8/10

MTV Music Generator 2 – “One of the most exciting and well put together releases yet. The first PS2 million seller anyone? Maybe not this early, but it damn well should be…” 9/10

Fur Fighters – “Cute fluffy creatures armed with shotguns blasting the stuffing out of each other. It’s no longer an insane dream, it’s an entertaining reality.” 8/10

Extermination – “Resi fans will adore it. Nothing spectacular, but crawling with subtle design innovations which need to be noticed. Evolution not revolution, then.” 7/10

Star Wars: Super Bombad Racing – “Fun, until you realise the CPU opposition has an unfair advantage, while derivative gameplay doesn’t help either. The Force is weak in this one.” 5/10

Rugby – “More akin to Madden than FIFA in terms of approach, Rugby is, for the most part, a highly successful and immensely enjoyable take on the sport.” 7/10

Rumble Racing – “Fast, furious, oodles of challenges and replay value to die for. PS2’s first acrobat-racer rips along a treat in two-player, too.” 8/10

Heroes of Might and Magic: Quest for the Dragonbone Staff – “A PC style game drastically stripped down for PS2, and it shows in having only half the options and gameplay you would expect.” 3/10

The Jungle Book: Groove Party – “Only the very young and easily pleased could possibly like this. Buy the PSOne version and a copy of the film instead.” 4/10

Gauntlet: Dark Legacy – “A hollow and uneven homage to the past, let down by dated gameplay elements that outnumber innovative additions.” 5/10

Army Men: Green Rogue – “An appalling game which plumbs new depths of astounding rottenness. An outrageous blasphemy to decent gaming.” 1/10

PSOne Reviews

Sheep, Dog ‘n’ Wolf – “With lateral thinking, frequent hilarity and top-notch gameplay, you’d be flocking stupid to miss it.” 9/10

Formula One 2001 – “In a field growing ever more crowded with Grand Prix sims, Formula One 2001 still holds the rest of the pack at bay. An improvement in almost every way over its brilliant predecessor.” 9/10

Army Men: Lock ‘n’ Load – “Life in plastic. It’s fantastic. Usually. War sucks, but somehow this manages to be worse. You won’t care about saving anyone. Every bit as appealing as an enormous flaming TNT sandwich.” 2/10

Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear – “Clumsier than a pair of ill-fitting jack boots. The sense of immediacy running through the first game is gone, replaced by turgid gameplay and dull as dishwater sorties. Go read the book instead.” 4/10

Hardcore

A Zone of the Enders walkthrough, and cheats and hints for 4X4 Evolution, Oni, Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes 2, MDK 2: Armageddon, Knockout Kings 2001, Madden 2001, NBA Live 2001, RC Revenge Pro and Operation Winback.

Disc Content

Playable Demos

MTV Music Generator 2

Moto GP

Footage

Extermination

All Star Baseball 2002

Crazy Taxi

Wacky Races

NBA Street

Fur Fighters

Rumble Racing

Voyage of Emotion: Reprise – Some of the games included this time are Metal Gear Solid 2, Rayman Revolution, Dark Cloud, Tekken Tag Tournament and Dead or Alive 2, among others. Watch it here.

Trivia

·         This issue has the first gimmick cover. In this case, the cast of Red Faction have blown holes through the cover with their guns that can break down walls.

·         Fun fact: This issue states that Ridge Racer V was the first PS2 game to sell 1 million copies. RIIIIIDGE RACER! Aplogies to MTV Music Generator 2, by the way.

·         This month’s Spy includes an article on The Lost, possibly the most intriguing cancelled PS2 game. It was to be a modern take on Dante’s Inferno by Irrational Games, developers of System Shock and Bioshock. It was eventually released years later on PC, retooled in India as Agni: Queen of Darkness. The game then appeared in Poland, without the Indian version's changes, but with a different title, Infamous: Where Death is Your Only Ally, before the game was finally released in English, with yet another title, Netherworld: Beyond Time I Stand! Talk about a rollercoaster.

·         Two Army Men games reviewed in one month? The developers must have had an axe to grind with OPS2 this month!

·         In a tangent on cute-ifying other sci-fi movies, the Star Wars: Super Bombad Racing review suggests a new sidekick for Crash Bandicoot - a facehugger that sits on his head to stop sun glare from getting in his eyes. Facehugger for Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fuelled, anyone? We got a literal box as a playable character, so nobody is off limits any more!

Quote of the Month: “This bathroom is brimming with vicious toilet ducks each armed with rocket launchers.” Still more pleasant and less life-threatening than the average student flat toilet.

Cover price: £4.99

Page Count: 146